Thursday, August 28, 2014

When I first heard the comments attributed to Ben Stein(Bueller?... Bueller?... Bueller? ), I must admit that I thought that it was satire. But sadly for my conservative friends, it would appear that he was serious.

"It’s been almost three weeks since unarmed teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri and we are just now finding out what the teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off has to say about the whole thing. According to actor turned conservative commentator Ben Stein, Brown was armed, with his “incredibly strong, scary self.”

“The idea of calling this poor, young man unarmed when he was 6’4″, 300 pounds, full of muscles and was apparently, according to what I read in The New York Times, on marijuana — to call him unarmed is like calling Sonny Liston unarmed, or Cassius Clay unarmed,” Stein told NewsMax’s Steve Malzberg on Wednesday. “He wasn’t unarmed. He was armed with his incredibly strong, scary self.”

If by “armed” Stein means Brown had arms, like Sonny Liston, Muhammad Ali and nearly every other human, then that is one thing. But in this context, “armed” usually means holding a firearm, something that could definitely be said of Officer Wilson, but not of Brown.

Moments later, Stein said that we as a country have moved from “lynching” of African-Americans to similar “lynchings” of police, as evidenced by Attorney General Eric Holder weighing in on the case. And, he also seems to think that George Zimmerman was a “policeman.”" [Source]

Man, how many dumb racist things can you say in one interview?

And to think that folks on the right get mad when they are painted as clueless racists. Well they are painted that way because of the musings of great conservative thinkers like Ben Stein.

Bill does not seem to think that there is such a thing as "white privilege."

"Blow begins by quoting O’Reilly:

“Last night on ‘The Factor,’ Megyn Kelly and I debated the concept of white privilege whereby some believe that if you are Caucasian you have inherent advantages in America. ‘Talking Points’ does not, does not believe in white privilege. However, there is no question that African-Americans have a much harder time succeeding in our society than whites do.”

“It is difficult to believe that those three sentences came in that order from the same mouth,” Blow writes. Once you admit that it’s “harder for blacks to succeed,” he argues, then the converse for whites must be “a form of privilege.” He adds, “When one has the luxury of not being forced to compensate for societal oppression based on basic identity, one is in fact privileged in that society.”

No, Mr. O’Reilly, it is statements like this one that make you the race hustler. The underlying logic is that blacks are possessed of some form of racial pathology or self-destructive racial impulses, that personal responsibility and systemic inequity are separate issues and not intersecting ones.

This is the false dichotomy that chokes to death any real accountability and honesty. Systemic anti-black bias doesn’t dictate personal behavior, but it can certainly influence and inform it. And personal behavior can reinforce people’s belief that their biases are justified. So goes the cycle.

But at the root of it, we can’t expect equality of outcome while acknowledging inequality of environments.

50 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Meanwhile in Ferguson,Yahoo Finance reports that businesses in Ferguson are struggling to survive. Some have not earned a cent in 17 days. Many are not hopeful of staying open. I wonder how many are Black owned and how many Black employees will be laid off. All for a chimpout that will ultimately be for nothing. Once again classic for the Black community.

This has been a meme for a few days at Fox, the whole "he shouldn't be considered unarmed" narrative. The fact that he is blah is enough to make him dangerous. And some folks have the gall to wonder why folks don't like the GOP? Fox is the media wing of the GOP which with the likes of O'Reilly are inherently anti-blah. Jon Stewert did a good takedown of Bill-O the other day.

Stein's father was a Nixon administration staffer, so awful beliefs go back a ways in his family tree.

Part of what Stein said has some validity. Much of the commentary on the Mike Brown shooting has implied that shooting an unarmed man is an automatic indicator of excessive force by the police. This is clearly not the case. If a cop shoots an unarmed man, I'd say that's a red flag that the shooting might more likely be unjustified, but there are certainly plenty of cases in which it would be plenty justifiable to shoot an unarmed man. If you're on the receiving end of a beatdown -- or about to be -- you're well in your legal rights to cap your attacker.

However, none of that means that Mike Brown's shooting in particular was necessarily justified.

And it's crazy to say that being a physically big dude is the same as having a weapon. Clearly, it's not, otherwise we wouldn't bother arming our military -- we'd just recruit the biggest bruisers around and send them overseas to deliver a knuckle sandwich.

“It is difficult to believe that those three sentences came in that order from the same mouth,” Blow writes. Once you admit that it’s “harder for blacks to succeed,” he argues, then the converse for whites must be “a form of privilege.”

The idea of white privilege is more than simply the idea that black people face discrimination that white people don't. It's the idea that white people's lives are somehow made vastly better than they otherwise would have been if they didn't have black people to kick around.

This is a highly controversial claim. There are a number of sub-beliefs contained within "white privilege theory" that -- well, let's just say that the most polite term I can use to describe them is "bullshit."

And that's exactly what that poor frightened white police officer figured. You hear that Field? You and black men like BIB (not too sure about PilotX) should thank Mr. Stein for sharing that little insider tidbit warning.

Now, about all those black women/black girls (Aiyana Stanley-Jones) who were shot and murdered by frightened white men and frightened police officers, who/what did they supposedly look like? Please let me know the time and the place for those marches.

Field, why does Granny disappear for weeks and then suddenly appear and talk as though she has been here all the time?

Is this a Bay Area 'Black Thing?' Did you know that the Blacks and Whites in the Bay Area are not like the Blacks and Whites in the rest of the country?

Blacks in the Bay Area actually look down on each other. That is, they pretend that they don't see each other when among Whites. Like the Whites, they pretend as though Blacks are nobody, ie a bm ain't shit. That is why the cop who murdered Oscar Grant only went to prison for 1 1/2 years....what a joke.

But the biggest joke is yet to come in Ferguson.

I say all of this to ask FN fans how long do you think Officer Darren Wilson will be in prison? 1 yr? 2 yrs? None?

Tell me something brother Field: When they were talking about "let justice take its course in Florida re:Trayvon Martin only to watch a mock jury set Zimmerman free.

WHY would Blacks want to watch that kind of justice again in Ferguson with a prosecutor who hates Blacks?

Haven't we seen this movie enough times? Negroes sure like those classic movies!

"Field, why does Granny disappear for weeks and then suddenly appear and talk as though she has been here all the time?"

I know you miss me, and all, but actually, I do more than chat on blogs. At the present, there is a fight against an injustice going on in Ferguson, which now is keeping me very, very busy.When I watched the video of that elderly Black woman beaten on the freeway that did it for me. Right now, I am not interested in what is going on overseas or what politician is lying or political propaganda. Furthermore, I am definitely not interested in reading QLB's white supremacy B.S. or the bickering back and forth on here that goes on between the posters.

Right now, my attention and efforts are concentrating on what is happening in Ferguson because I see a few patterns with the police and local Gov. Officials that reminds me of what took place in the 50's. The only thing the mayor and police chief hasn't done yet is block the school doors to keep Black children out. Nor has the President had to order the National Guard to escort the children to school. Nonetheless, the way it is going I wouldn't be surprise if that’s isn’t next. At first, I thought I was dreaming or having a flashback, but I discovered that the dung is real.

When Missouri’s Lt. Governor, undercover white supremacist, KKK took off his sheet and made that “traditional Anglo-justice” statement my blood pressure shot up 180/97. Ferguson is your modern day Selma, Alabama and Montgomery, Alabama. Therefore, to make a long story short, while the world is paying attention I got work to do.

BTW, I saw some chilling,horrifying pictures of innocent infants and toddlers' heads blown off in Gaza all for what? Some land? These world leaders amaze me with their barbaric wars that sole purpose is to make money off of death, land grabs,and build military complex. SICK! No value of human life, nowhere amongst world leaders. Greed is a weapon of mass destruction.

They don't live in fear of being attacked by other Conservatives or pretenders like field negro."

bullshit, they have to say stupid shit as to not get primaried by insane tea party candidates. Ya'll have the biggest plantation of all, an all white all Christian plantation of autobots. Conservatives are the most monolithic group on the planet.

Does that prove or disprove your point about "just being a big black man in America can be an automatic death sentence?"

What is different about you then the black people you write about?

Why do you avoid talking about that?

10:26 AM---------------Bill, you miss the point. Why not try to understand what is being said?

Size of body in life means nothing if you are bm. In fact, the bigger you are, the greater the risk of being killed. Michael Brown and Eric Gardner proved that.

Status or position in life means nothing either. There is probably not ONE bm with an MD, law degree, President of the USA, or any other prestigious position in America who hasn't been harassed by the police, and discriminated in public at stores or any where else. Hell, even famous male actors have been degraded.

This isn't about one's status, or position in life, it's about having to be on hyper-alert to shaming, embarrassment and harassment because one is a bm.

Of course, you have no idea what I'm talking about because you are White, and you come from a lineage of white slave masters...NOT slaves...there is a big difference between the two.

Yet, you have the arrogance to attack Field over something you can't 'even' relate to because you haven't had the experience. That is called "White Privilege". It is disgusting ugly.

White Privilege, along with its counterpart, racism, insults the entire human race and GOD.

Yīshēng said...Bill why does Field's physical drscription of himself as a linebacker trouble you so much?

Doesn't trouble me at all.Not sure why you would assume that.

I was merely pointing out that FN wrote that "just being a big black man in America can be an automatic death sentence." and I pointed out that he is also a self-proclaimed "big black man" and he hasn't been killed "just for being a big black man."

Why do you believe unlike other "big black man" FN was never killed in the street?

What makes FN more special than Michael Brown?

Maybe the parents of future Michael Browns would like to know what makes FN special.

Well once again YT to the rescue. Figures that a 9 year old white girl can do it better than the bangers. Your people kill each other wholesale. Let YT help you a bit and Blacks get bent out of shape. Somehow I just don't think you're going to need a white girl to help the bangers break 50 kills for the month.

Mr. Stein,there's no one scarier on this planet than the hairy, 3 shades of pink or more, wrinkled, age spotted, 3 to 4 strands of hair on the head Caucasian male with guns drawn. You guys look like crypt keepers/vampires/Sasquatch. Lay off the looks of Africans in America; look in the damn mirror at yourselves. You all should re-name yourselves Bernie.

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